Crypto Traders Flock to OTC Markets as Exchange Liquidity Dries Up

Investors are flocking to meme coins like Pepecoin (PEPE) and other newly issued tokens in the hopes of replicating the success of the controversial cryptocurrency. However, the trend has the potential to disrupt the huge rallies bitcoin and ether have seen this year. Despite the shocking magnitude of PEPE's rise, finding the next big meme coin is next to impossible, with every winner surrounded by the ashes of many failures. On-chain data makes it easy to track whale activity, and several newly issued meme tokens have surpassed PEPE in trading volume over the past weekend. The meme coin trend has essentially created a black hole that sucks liquidity out of the market, potentially impediment for other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) or ether (ETH).Ethereum scaling blockchain Arbitrum has distributed over $120 million worth of its arb (ARB) tokens to projects built on the network, with some projects selling their allocation immediately, while others plan to use it to strengthen their development and user engagement. The airdrop, which was based on network activity and number of wallets, was sent to over 131 decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), with NFT marketplace TreasureDAO and gaming-focused TridentDAO receiving the largest allocations. Some projects, like Vesta Finance, plan to use their airdrop to bolster their development, while others, like PlutusDAO, will use their allocation in multiple ways to make their project stronger. The airdrop has spurred both excitement and criticism from the community, with some projects selling their tokens immediately, while others are holding onto their allocation in anticipation of future growth.The foundation behind layer 2 blockchain Optimism has sold 116 million OP tokens ($157 million) to seven separate buyers, according to an announcement on the Optimism governance website. The token sale was described as a 'private' and 'planned' event with the tokens originating from an unallocated portion of the OP Token treasury. Optimism's treasury remains at around $1.25 billion, all of which is made up of its own token, DefiLlama data shows. The seven buyers will be allowed to delegate the tokens to third parties in order to participate in blockchain governance. The foundation also issued its third community airdrop earlier this week, with over 31,000 users receiving a share of 19.4 million tokens. Circulating supply, however, remains relatively low compared to the total supply with a further 570 million tokens being allocated to future airdrops. OP's circulating supply is 18.59% of its total supply, according to CoinMarketCap. OP is currently trading at $1.35 having lost 2.19% of its value over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data.

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Trader Turns $500 into Million-Dollar Fortune With BALD Meme Coin on Coinbase's Blockchain

The much-awaited Aptos rival, Sui, launched its mainnet on Wednesday with hundreds of millions in VC funding. The blockchain, founded by ex-Meta Platforms employees, boasts fast transaction speeds and a growing ecosystem of projects. However, the network faces challenges in decentralization and token distribution. The token trades at $1.33, with a market capitalization of $687 million, according to CoinGecko. The network has over 200 projects in its directory and is expected to increase as it gains traction. Sui developers promised fast transaction speeds, which gradually increased as the network gained its footing on launchday. Speeds averaged around four transactions per second minutes after the launch, but increased to 18tps six hours later. Aptos, by comparison, is pushing out at speeds of 9tps. However, the network faces challenges in decentralization, with most nodes concentrated in Germany and the US. The distribution of token holders remains unclear. Sui's success in securing VC funding pre-launch has invited comparisons to Aptos, another relatively young blockchain with a large VC backing. Both blockchains were designed by teams from Diem, Meta's failed stablecoin project, and are undergirded by Move, a Rust-based programming language developed at Meta. Tokenomics tussle Critics have blasted Sui for its tokenomics in recent weeks. In April, Sui disappointed some community members by announcing it would forgo an airdrop. Instead, SUI, the platform's native token for governance and gas, became available for 3 cents per token in an early sale on three exchanges. There was a later token sale for 10 cents per token capped at 10,000 tokens per person. Binance added support for SUI to BNB and TUSD holders through its bootstrapping portal, Launchpad, earlier this week. Users in the US were not eligible for the early sale program. UPDATE: Provides information about transactions per second on Sui six hours after the mainnet's launch.A rise in open interest shows more participation from crypto traders and a bullish market sentiment, a trading firm said.Open interest in bitcoin (BTC) across crypto derivatives exchanges has surged to $10 billion, a five-month high after leverage subsided in the wake of FTX's collapse in November, according to data from Coinalyze.A rise in open interest, which is a metric that assesses the value of all unsettled derivatives positions, alongside an increase in price is often used to confirm the legitimacy of a move. At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading at around $30,000 after it surged to a 10-month high of $30,540 on Tuesday.Zahreddine Touag, head of trading at Woorton, a crypto trading firm and liquidity provider, said that bitcoin broke out in a 'global risk-on environment,' with the Nasdaq also rising by 10% in the last 30 days.'We think this move is driven by technicals, BTC broke a major resistance at $28.5k and rebounded on its 2023 bullish trendline,' Touag said.'We noticed futures open interest has been moving up vertically which shows more participation from crypto traders and a bullish market sentiment,' he added.'For now, we do not see signs of extreme exuberance; indeed, the fear and greed index is at 61, funding rates are still negative on many exchanges for BTC while short-sellers did not capitulate yet. We will monitor these metrics to predict a potential trend reversal.'It's worth noting that an increase in open interest means that whilst short-sellers have added to their shorts in this region, traders betting on long trades are doing so with leverage that may unwind if price begins to reverse.A total of $98 million in crypto derivatives positions have been liquidated in the past 24 hours as bitcoin momentarily slipped below $30,000, according to CoinGlass.UPDATE (April 10, 2023, 20:03 UTC): Updates quote attribution.Edited by Parikshit Mishra.An unidentified attacker has taken over the DAO of Tornado Cash, a privacy-focused crypto mixer, with a malicious proposal that granted them fake votes. The attacker has withdrawn 10,000 votes as TORN tokens and sold them, causing a 40% slump in token prices. The attack does not impact the actual Tornado Cash protocol, but the community is working on proposals to revert the changes made to the code. Some have suggested creating a new contract and airdropping new tokens to holders. The attack highlights the potential vulnerabilities of DAOs and the need for robust security measures to prevent such incidents.

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Coinbase's Base Prepares for Mainnet Launch With Slew of Security Audits

Layer 1 blockchain protocol Avalanche is picking up steam, reaching a six-month high in daily active addresses earlier this week. According to blockchain data firm Artemis.xyz, Avalanche's daily active addresses hit nearly 80,000 on April 12. Its daily active user base grew 85% in the past 90 days, making it one of the fastest-growing protocols, ahead of BNB Chain, Tron, Ethereum, Aptos, and Bitcoin. Only four protocols grew faster, per Artemis: StarkNet, Arbitrum, Stacks, and Canto. The high-water mark coincided with Avalanche's April 12 partnership with a bevy of financial institutions that will contribute to its network infrastructure, signaling traditional finance companies' increased interest in the Avalanche ecosystem. The price of Avalanche's native token AVAX stands at $18.53 at press time, down 1.34% in the past 24 hours, per CoinDesk data. Avalanche is the seventh-largest blockchain by total value locked, which currently sits at $878.7 million, according to crypto stats website DefiLlama. Edited by Danny Nelson.Layer-2 blockchain Optimism is set to unlock $36 million worth of tokens on Sunday, with the anticipated increase in supply spurring a 3.5% slump in the price of the blockchain's native OP token on Tuesday. The previous token unlock on June 30 resulted in a 10.7% sell-off across all OP trading pairs, although the token rebounded by more than 15% over the following 24 hours. The unlock equates to 3.56% of optimism's circulating supply, with $19 million being allocated to core contributors and $17 million to investors. The token has marked a 67% gain since the turn of the year following a series of integrations with the likes of Worldcoin and Coinbase's Base protocol. Optimism is currently trading at $1.50 with a market cap of over $1 billion. Circulating supply remains at just 16% as token unlocks are scheduled incrementally until August, 2027.Dogecoin's daily transaction volume has reached lifetime highs after the introduction of the DRC-20 token standard, which allows developers to issue tokens that take network fees in the form of dogecoin (DOGE). According to data from BitInfoCharts, the network saw over 645,000 transactions on Sunday, briefly crossing both Bitcoin and Litecoin transactions that day. This is a significant increase from the average daily transaction volume of around 20,000. The introduction of DRC-20 has added value to dogecoin and laid the path for potential decentralized finance (DeFi) services built on the blockchain. However, the token deployment has also attracted criticism, with some pointing out that it may lead to network congestion and that it moves away from dogecoin's aim of being used as an everyday currency. High fees and network congestion are valid concerns for any blockchain, as they may lead to the network becoming expensive and slow for everyday users, potentially damping adoption plans. Bitcoin's own 'Bitcoin Request for Comment' (BRC-20) standard went live in March, opening the floodgates to two-year high fees as a Bitcoin-based meme coin trading frenzy gained notoriety on the network.

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DeFi Protocol 0VIX Loses Nearly $2M in Flash-Loan Exploit

The newly launched zkSync Era blockchain is seeing brisk activity as value locked on the network crossed $100 million this past weekend amid a flurry of new token releases. Data from L2Beat shows over $69 million worth of ether (ETH) and nearly $30 million in USD coin (USDC) stablecoins have been locked on zkSync. The amount is likely distributed among several zkSync-based projects for purchasing ecosystem tokens or providing liquidity to exchanges on the network. The value locked on zkSync has climbed to over $100 million. More than 3.3 million transactions have been conducted on the network since it went live on March 24. The network can process 4.4 transactions per second. The network supports 'ZK rollups,' which are a type of blockchain scaling system based on cryptography known as zero-knowledge proofs. These features are seen as a key advance in speeding up blockchain transactions and reducing the cost of network activity. Populating the zkSync ecosystem are decentralized-finance tokens, which power lending, trading, and borrowing services, and meme coins fashioned after the popular Shiba Inu dog breed. DefiLlama data shows that decentralized exchanges SyncSwap and Mute hold over $30 million in locked tokens. Mute's native MUTE tokens have a market capitalization of $47 million. SyncSwap hasn't issued tokens as of early April. Over $19 million is locked on SyncSwap's liquidity pool for USDC and ether - which is paying annualized yields of 46%, or one of the highest figures in the crypto market as of Monday. As such, meme coins are making a mark as well. DEXScreener data shows tokens such as ZKDoge, ZKInu, and ZkSync SHIB have attracted millions of dollars in trading volumes since their recent launches. Traction on these meme-coin tokens has been tepid so far, with highly volatile prices and market capitalizations of under $5 million. Some say the zkSync launch has been muted relative to the hype, however. 'The recently launched zkSync Era mainnet is a sign that the evolutionary trend in the overall blockchain ecosystem is unimpeded; however, the low number of projects building on it is a sign that the Web3.0 world isn't fully prepared to welcome this innovation for now,' Maia Benzimra, head of institutional marketing at SpoolDAO, said in a Telegram message. Benzimra added that adoption may surge quickly as and when more innovative projects are built for users. 'The trend can change within the twinkling of an eye when innovative products building solutions that address the core needs of users are designed and launched. zkSync is notably a major upgrade for addressing the scalability of the Ethereum protocol, and in no time, it is bound to find its rhythm and carve out a functional niche for itself in the ecosystem.' Edited by Parikshit Mishra.Some LUNC token holders remain committed to a Terra ecosystem revival. Six engineers calling themselves the 'Six Samurai' are proposing a Terra Classic ecosystem revival plan for the blockchain as some community members try their best to break away from the shackles of disgraced founder Do Kwon and rebuild the project. Terra Classic is the original network created by Terraform Labs and has continued as an independent blockchain rather than Terra 2.0, which is a forked version that was created in the wake of Terra's collapse. Its LUNC tokens are valued at $580 million as of Monday. The engineers, co-led by 'Bilbo Baggins' and 'Solid Snake,' proposed a $116,000 three-month spend from the Terra Classic community in a governance proposal over the weekend, claiming they would work part-time on the project if approved. The proposal includes tasks such as upgrades to the network to reduce the syncing time between nodes, a terraUSD (USTC) testnet for testing financial services, an application for generating yield to token holders, and a plan to reward developers for the user activity that their applications generate. These efforts aim to eventually drive value to the Terra Classic ecosystem and, hopefully, an increase in LUNC value over time. The Six Samurai is among the few community members set on Terra Classic's revival to save the once-storied ecosystem. In discussions that started in mid-April, community member 'RedlineDrifter' described a new model for Terra Classic's UST stablecoin that relied on token buybacks, unidirectional swaps, staking, and an 'algorithmic peg divergence fee' to address the issues with the original design. UST was the token at the center of Terra's collapse that led to a 99.9% drop in LUNA token prices, a $28 billion hemorrhage in Terra-based DeFi applications, and an eventual spiral to crypto funds going bust.Ethereum scaling blockchain zkSync Era has attracted over $245 million in around three weeks after launch, as investors search for the next big bets to place on newer projects building on upstart networks. Data from L2Beat, which tracks activity on layer 2 networks built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, shows over 70,000 ether (ETH), $81 million in USD coin (USDC) stablecoin, and $8 million in mute (MUTE) tokens have been locked on zkSync since March 22, when the network first launched. zkSync Era has seen an uptick in token value flowing to the network. DefiLlama data shows on-chain exchange Syncswap leads in total value locked (TVL) among Era-based services, with over $64 million. It is followed by Velocore at $25 million and Mute at $15 million. Users can earn up to 80% in annualized rewards by providing liquidity or executing trades on these platforms – which may be driving capital to Era leading to value accrual for tokens such as mute, issued by the Mute DEX. On-chain derivatives trading has not caught up among Era users so far, data suggests. Era-based Onchain Trade, a derivatives decentralized exchange (DEX), holds just over $2 million in TVL and has seen zero volumes for futures in the past 24 hours. Spot trading on the DEX, however, has racked up $600,000 in volume. Meanwhile, some meme coins fashioned after the Shiba Inu dog breed – on which popular tokens dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB) are based – are seeing cycles of brisk price surges followed by a dump, DEXTools data shows. More than 7 million transactions have been conducted on the network since launch, and the network can process 3.5 transactions per second. ZkSync is named after the so-called ZK-rollups, which are a type of blockchain scaling system based on cryptography known as zero-knowledge proofs. These features are seen as a key advance in speeding up blockchain transactions and reducing the cost of network activity. Edited by Oliver Knight.

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Sui Network to Issue Token Following Exchange Sale, Airdrop Hunters Dismayed

Reddit's Fortnite Token BRICK (BRICK) has surged 110% in the past 24 hours, bucking the wider cryptocurrency trend that saw bitcoin (BTC) fall back below $27,000 on Wednesday. The token, which was distributed to active members of the Fortnite subreddit, had lost over 80% of its value in the past two months before this recent rally. nnThe majority of trading volume occurred on Kraken, with the figure across all exchanges nearing $750,000, an 800% rise from the previous 24-hour period, according to CoinMarketCap. However, liquidity remains relatively thin across all exchanges, with 2% market depth on Kraken equating to around $2,500 on both the bid and ask side. nnThe sudden price increase has been attributed to a lack of clear catalyst, although it has been speculated that the recent rule change proposals on Reddit may have contributed to the rally. The token's performance has been closely watched by investors, with some speculating that it could be a sign of a potential revival of the Fortnite community. nnDespite the recent surge, the token's market capitalization is still relatively low, and the lack of liquidity in an asset that has experienced significant upside presents a risk to traders as price could cascade back down with minimal effort, potentially trapping those that bought the recent high. nnOverall, the sudden and unexplained rally in BRICK has caught the attention of investors and Reddit community members alike, and it remains to be seen if the token's performance will continue to defy the wider cryptocurrency trend.A rise in open interest shows more participation from crypto traders and a bullish market sentiment, a trading firm said.Open interest in bitcoin (BTC) across crypto derivatives exchanges has surged to $10 billion, a five-month high after leverage subsided in the wake of FTX's collapse in November, according to data from Coinalyze.A rise in open interest, which is a metric that assesses the value of all unsettled derivatives positions, alongside an increase in price is often used to confirm the legitimacy of a move. At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading at around $30,000 after it surged to a 10-month high of $30,540 on Tuesday.Zahreddine Touag, head of trading at Woorton, a crypto trading firm and liquidity provider, said that bitcoin broke out in a 'global risk-on environment,' with the Nasdaq also rising by 10% in the last 30 days.'We think this move is driven by technicals, BTC broke a major resistance at $28.5k and rebounded on its 2023 bullish trendline,' Touag said.'We noticed futures open interest has been moving up vertically which shows more participation from crypto traders and a bullish market sentiment,' he added.'For now, we do not see signs of extreme exuberance; indeed, the fear and greed index is at 61, funding rates are still negative on many exchanges for BTC while short-sellers did not capitulate yet. We will monitor these metrics to predict a potential trend reversal.'It's worth noting that an increase in open interest means that whilst short-sellers have added to their shorts in this region, traders betting on long trades are doing so with leverage that may unwind if price begins to reverse.A total of $98 million in crypto derivatives positions have been liquidated in the past 24 hours as bitcoin momentarily slipped below $30,000, according to CoinGlass.UPDATE (April 10, 2023, 20:03 UTC): Updates quote attribution.Edited by Parikshit Mishra.After the frenzied Arbitrum airdrop day, nearly 240,000 addresses still need to claim their governance tokens worth roughly $596 million. According to blockchain analytics firm Nansen, 61% of eligible crypto wallets have already claimed their ARB, leaving 37% of the total 1.1 billion ARB allocated for the airdrop unclaimed. These tokens have yet to enter the market, and eligible addresses have 184 days left to claim their tokens. The airdrop's initial redemption rate was artificially restricted due to the collapse of the claims website due to heavy traffic, which affected the token supply and caused ARB to soar to as high as $14 on some venues before settling out around $1.42 once more wallets had claimed their allocations. The effect that token supply can have on emerging markets was on full display Thursday morning. The unclaimed tokens represent a significant amount of value that could potentially enter the market, which could impact the price of ARB and other cryptocurrencies. The lack of claiming could also indicate a lack of interest in the project or a lack of understanding of the airdrop process. The situation highlights the importance of proper communication and education for a successful airdrop and the potential impact of token supply on emerging markets.

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Cross-Chain Bridge deBridge Launches App for Trading Without Liquidity Pools

The Ethereum Shanghai upgrade, set to take place late Wednesday, will allow validators to unstake and withdraw the ether (ETH) they've pledged to run the network. However, according to data from Nansen, very little ETH is poised to be withdrawn, with nearly 4,000 validators having already unstaked 141,499 ETH, representing less than 1% of Ethereum's total validators and staked ETH. Crypto exchange Huobi is waiting to remove almost 40,000 ETH, making it the largest entity in the withdrawal queue. Validators cannot withdraw at once; there's a daily limit, with eight validators able to exit per epoch, or about 1,800 per day. The Ethereum upgrade will complete the transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain, allowing stakers to withdraw their staked ETH as well as the rewards they've accrued. According to Fundstrat Global Advisors' Walter Teng, there are several possibilities for unstaking, including restaking with liquid staking derivatives, selling tokens, using tokens to lever up, or holding tokens to sell later. Teng's hunch is that restaking will be the dominant option. Edited by Nick Baker.BNB Chain, a popular blockchain network, is set to undergo a significant upgrade on June 11 at 21:30 UTC. The upgrade, dubbed 'Luban,' will incorporate three distinct enhancements aimed at improving the network's speed and security. nnThe Luban hard fork will introduce several new features, including the 'Fast Finality' mechanism, which ensures that once a block is finalized, it cannot be reversed. This reduces the risk of chain reorganizations by malicious actors. Additionally, the upgrade will introduce 'Cross Chain Relayer Management,' which aims to mitigate potential security issues in the BSC Bridge. Finally, the 'CometBFT Light Block Validation' system will be implemented to verify specific blocks from other CometBFT-compatible blockchains and enable data transfer between them. nnThe upgrade is expected to attract investors and users to the BNB Chain ecosystem, as it will provide developers with even better features and tools to build on the network. The bnb token (BNB) will also benefit from the upgrade, as it will contribute to the value proposition for the token in the future. nnThe Luban hard fork is a significant milestone for the BNB Chain, and it demonstrates the network's commitment to improving its speed and security. The upgrade is expected to be a major boost for the blockchain ecosystem and will help to drive the adoption of the bnb token. nnIn conclusion, the Luban upgrade is a significant development for the BNB Chain, and it is expected to have a positive impact on the network's speed, security, and adoption. The upgrade will provide developers with new features and tools to build on the network, and it will contribute to the value proposition for the bnb token. The BNB Chain is set to become an even more robust and secure blockchain ecosystem with the implementation of the Luban hard fork.The native token of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Compound (COMP) has surged by more than 50% in four days following a spike in volume and outflows on Binance. One wallet deposited $3.5 million worth of USDT and withdrew $7.76 million in Compound's COMP tokens this week, indicating steady accumulation of the DeFi token. The recent rally in COMP follows a period of low volatility trading in the crypto market, with several altcoins posting double-digit gains. The article also mentions the CFTC commissioner's optimism towards spot bitcoin ETFs and the recent increase in Ethereum's average gas fees.

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